Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

The fake Muslim pilgrimage festival to Jerusalem

There actually is a pilgrimage festival by Muslims to Jerusalem.

It is Nabi Musa, a seven-day festival celebrating Moses.

What is the date of the festival?

It turns out that the holiday is not pegged to the Muslim calendar, but to the Christian calendar. And it does not date back to antiquity, but to the 19th century.

Read this description from 1955:

As Wikipedia notes, the date for this "Muslim" holiday is "beginning on the Friday before Good Friday in the old Orthodox Greek calendar."

In other words, the holiday is fake. It was meant specifically to counter Christian pilgrims converging on Jerusalem during Holy Week.

It isn't a celebration - it is a veiled attack on another religion.

Jerusalem is 3000 years old. It was divided for 19 years.

So why exactly is that anomalous 19 years considered the "status quo" again?

And why are the succeeding 44 years of a re-unified Jerusalem considered something that is somehow an obstacle to peace?

It isn't because of its legal status. It isn't because the world loves Palestinian Arabs. It isn't because the world accepted Jordan's annexation of half the city. It certainly isn't from any displays of love of the city shown by the Muslim world during those 19 years.

There is only one possible explanation: too many people do not like the idea of Jews controlling their own holiest city.

That is the issue of Jerusalem in a nutshell. And it just so happens to be the issue of Israel in a nutshell as well.

Jews visit Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day. Muslims unhappy.

Palestine Press Agency reports that groups of "ultra-orthodox" Jews are roaming the courtyards of the Temple Mount to celebrate Jerusalem Day.

The report says that they are causing "sporadic clashes."

Of course, they are not initiating any such clashes - if anything violent is happening, it is coming from Muslims who want the area to be Jew-free and are terribly offended that Jews want to actually visit their holiest site.

"Kol Hakavod": Israeli Arabs joining national service

From Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

"Anyone who volunteers for national service will be treated like a leper and will be vomited out of Arab society." These were the words of Jamal Zahalka at a rally in 2008. He's a lawmaker with Balad, an Israeli Arab political party. His harsh words were intended to stop young Israeli Arabs from volunteering in Israel's National Service program. But they are not working.

Israeli Arabs do not have to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Today, only about 300 Muslim and Christian Arabs (Muslim Arabs make up three-fourths of the Israeli-Arab sector) serve in a special unit of the IDF. But now they have the option of participating in National Service instead, along with Jewish Israelis who cannot go to the army for religious or medical reasons when facing mandatory conscription at age 18.

Despite the pressures in their communities and from Balad not to participate in National Service, gradually more young Israeli Arabs are going against the grain; this year, about 1,500 Israeli Arabs are enrolled in the program.

An alternative to the military

National Service became an option for Israelis as an alternative to the usual three years in the IDF for men and two years for women. Many different non-profit organizations coordinate the placements, typically in education and health facilities. About 90 percent of the volunteers are women. They serve for either one or two years, receiving a monthly stipend of about $200, and are rewarded afterward with benefits commensurate with time put in. Money earned can be used toward a new business, or higher education after their service.

Israeli Arabs have been joining National Service since an initiative of the Israeli government in 2007 to open Israeli national civic service to all populations. Now, as Israeli-Arab Muslims, Christians and Druze look to serve alongside their Jewish counterparts, they not only gain the concept of "giving back" to society, but also are entitled to the same attractive benefits - which also include better terms on a mortgage, good deals on eyeglasses and social benefits.

A success story

One of Israel's first-ever Arab volunteers is Nasra Hmod. Today she is a confident mother of three living in Ramle, not far from Tel Aviv. In 1994, when she graduated high school, she ran out of options. "I was looking for a framework to work within and couldn't find it. For Arabs, it's hard to find work and I didn't find the place where I wanted to study," she says.

Hmod heard about National Service and inquired at Shlomit, an NGO that helps coordinate placements. "I really wanted to volunteer for the Magen David Adom [the Israeli Red Cross] but didn't succeed. Then I heard about National Service, and contacted Chaya at Shlomit and told her I was an Arab." Almost right away, Shlomit had arranged a placement for Hmod in the emergency department of Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, where today she works as a receptionist - basically the same work she is did as a volunteer, but now she has more responsibilities.

Hmod is a big fan of National Service and encourages other young Arabs to join. "I lied," she says, when asked how her community accepted her decision to volunteer. It was only after her year of volunteering was over that she told her family she had been involved in National Service. They wouldn't have accepted it otherwise, she says. To cover up for her lack of money, she'd told her family that she was in school.

When she met Jews on the job, they would always tell her "kol hakavod", a Hebrew expression of admiration, which literally means "all the honor goes to you." Hmod encourages young Arabs to do national service, even though it delays their plans to study, travel or make some quick money.

(h/t Silke)

Fayyad again complains that Arabs are reneging on pledges

From Ma'an:

The Palestinian Authority is facing a financial crisis because funds pledged by donor nations are not arriving on time, Prime Minister of the West Bank government Salam Fayyad said Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference with Japan's representative to the Palestinian Authority, Fayyad said the slow delivery of promised aid was putting pressure on the government.

"In 2011, we have been receiving $52.5 million dollars a month from the Arab countries, which is much less than the amount they committed to deliver," he said.

This may be a mistranslation; last year it was reported that Arab League had pledged $55 million a month and paid only a small percentage of that amount. I don't know if the Arabs have increased their payments this year, and I am not aware of any significant pledge increases.

Arab nations have also reneged on their generous one-time pledges to the PA as well as pledges to UNRWA.

"Moderate" Abbas meets with Islamic Jihad terrorist leader

Hamas is not the only terrorist group that Mahmoud Abbas is embracing. From JPost:

Under the auspices of Egyptian authorities, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met in Cairo on Monday with Ramadan Shallah, secretary- general of the Islamic Jihad organization, and his deputy, Ziad Nakhleh.

The meeting between Abbas and the Syrian-based Islamic Jihad leaders dealt with ways of consolidating Palestinian national reconciliation, a PA official said.

The two sides also discussed the PA security crackdown on Islamic Jihad operatives and supporters in the West Bank, the official said.

Islamic Jihad has condemned the ongoing crackdown and urged the PA to release all its members, especially in wake of the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation accord that was reached in Cairo three weeks ago.

Under the former regime of Hosni Mubarak, Islamic Jihad leaders and members were unwelcome in Egypt.

An Islamic Jihad official said the talks also focused on ways of “confronting future challenges and Israeli threats.” He described the meeting with Abbas as positive and thorough.

Al Quds al Arabi notes that they met at Al Azhar University:

[Shallah praised] Al-Azhar's 'role in confronting the challenges of the Zionists as a beacon of Islamic research and knowledge'.

Shallah said that Al Azhar is the 'fence of the Islamic faith and the spearhead of the nation to defend its holy sites and the face of Israeli plans of Judaizing Jerusalem'.

The Sheikh of Al-Azhar stressed that Egypt is ready to support the Palestinian cause in the face of Israeli plans of 'land grabbing and [violating] Islamic sanctities'.

The Egyptian/Hamas siege of Gaza continues

It seems Rafah is not really open. Not even close. From Ma'an:

On the first day of full operations, 530 Palestinians used the terminal crossing both ways, while the second day say 845 Palestinians pass through the terminal. On Monday, the third day of operations, 722 Palestinians entered or exited Gaza.

The slow process and long lines frustrated officials, while a list of more than 5,000 Palestinians blacklisted from using the terminal sparked anger from Hamas.

Officials traded increasingly headed accusations over who failed in the creation of a mechanism to allow Palestinians to use Rafah, culminating in a late-night meeting between security personnel from both sides.

Following the meeting, the officials announced that a cap of 400 travelers per day would be set on the crossing, and the names of the permitted passengers would be posted one day ahead of travel.

The original agreement was for older people, kids and women to have unlimited access to the crossings. Now Hamas is agreeing to only 400 people a day.

The funny part is that there is really no difference between Rafah today and Rafah from June 2010-January 2011. Egypt opened the Rafah crossings right after the Mavi Marmara incident in June, and it remained open continuously until Eid in September when it was closed for three days. It re-opened after that continuously until January 25, 2011.

During the first month of its opening last year, some 600 people would cross daily - 300 in each direction.

So the current pseudo-opening of Rafah has absolutely nothing to do with Israel. It is pretty much going back to the situation before the Egyptian uprising, with roughly the same restrictions in place. And the current Egyptian authorities - as well as Hamas - are acting just as they did last year.

Of course, none of the news media is mentioning this.

Jerusalem Day: Videos

Today is Yom Yerushalayim, the day to celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem after the artificial splitting of the city for 19 long years from 1948-1967.

JCPA came out with a brilliant video showing the history of Jerusalem in 5 minutes, highlighting how only under Jewish rule has it been truly a place for freedom of religion.

Not nearly as good, but I made a video a couple of years ago comparing how important Jerusalem is in Jewish and Muslim culture:

Last year, Aish HaTorah put together their own nice tribute for Yom Yerushalayim:

Administrivia/open thread

The blog has broken its previous record for pageviews this month, with over 169,000 pageviews and 120,000 unique pageviews.

In the past 12 months I have over 1.3 million pageviews. My Alexa rank has gone up to 139,878 out of all websites in the world, up from around 210,000 in December. That's pretty good.

I am getting so many emails with suggestions for posts that I cannot possibly post them all. When I can, I put them in linkdumps, but there are really a lot to go through, so my apologies if I cannot acknowledge them all. As it is, I am only skimming the comments because there are so many and I don't have enough time.

But I'm working on how to live without sleep altogether. When I succeed, then I'll have a little bit more time to spend on the blog...

I made it to the finals of the Pro-Israel Blog-Off at Israellycool. The final voting will probably be the week of June 12th since next week is the holiday of Shavuot. My opponent for the final is Israel Muse.

I can enter any post from the past six months for the final. I intended to make a video but unfortunately I will not have the time to do it as well as I want to, so I apologize for those who voted for me on that basis :)

Since I don't like to submit old posts, right now I am leaning to submitting the audio post of my lecture on How to Be a Media-Savvy Advocate of Israel that I gave last week. My second choice is my post also last week on Bursting Liberal Assumptions About the Peace Process. Since I've been swinging for the fences in my submissions in the first three rounds, I think I will again, even if it means that the judges must listen to me for 65 minutes!

If you think I should change my mind, I'm open to other opinions.

The winner, based on a combination of votes and judges' opinions, gets an iPad.

When the voting begins, I'll remind you all to vote. Repeatedly. Because, let's face it, who doesn't want an iPad?

And here's an open thread for your enjoyment and edification....

Video: Who do the territories belong to?

Well done and accurate, now with English translation in the comments.

Why are there so many Egyptian birth defects?

Al Masry al-Youm interviews doctors who list the three major reasons why Egyptian babies have a high number of birth defects.

Number three is economic conditions, that make it difficult for women to get proper pre-natal care.

Number two is pollution, such as contamination of water sources or living near factories that emit dangerous byproducts.

But the major reason for birth defects is inbreeding.

Some 35-40% of Egyptians marry their own cousins, according to the article. And they are not alone.

This 2005 study says:

One distinctive feature of Arab families is the relatively high rate of marriage between relatives (in particular, between cousins), a practice known as consanguinity. Marriage between relatives is particularly high in Sudan, Libya, and Saudi Arabia, where 40 percent to 50 percent of ever-married women ages 15 to 49 are wed to their first cousins. These consanguineous marriages are not necessarily arranged marriages; they may well reflect the wishes of the marrying partners. But marriage between close relatives can jeopardize the health of their offspring, as can marriage among families with a history of genetic diseases.

A 1997 study in the UAE found:

The consanguinity rate in the UAE has increased from 39% to 50.5% in one generation.

Israeli Arabs have high rates of consanguineous marriages as well.

This is a major health crisis in the Arab world that falls under the radar.

The sad part is that this is a problem that is relatively easy to fix. Yet none of the people we see so often who pretend to love the Arabs so much seem to care when Arab problems cannot be blamed on Israel.

"Free Software Foundation" founder cancels Israel lectures

From Thinq.co.uk:

Open sourcerer and president of the Free Software Foundation, Richard Stallman, has cancelled a bunch of lectures and public appearances he was due to make in Israel, since he'd tacked them on to a visit he is to make to the Occupied Territories paid for by Palestinians.

Stallman was had booked himself in to speak at Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and Shenkar College in July when he also has engagements in the Occupied Territories as part of a trip paid for by Palestinian organisations.

When they found out about Stallman's other engagements his Palestinian paymasters threatened to pull the funding, which in turn lead Stallman to cancel his Israeli dates.

Stallman wrote:
"The funds for my travel to Israel are coming from Palestinians who invited me to give talks for them. They are unhappy that I offered to give talks at Israeli universities, and say they won't buy the tickets if I'm going to do that. So I can go, and cancel these speeches, or not go, and cancel these speeches.

"I think it is best if I go, and give the speeches they originally invited me to give."

"I am sorry for the disappointment this will cause."

My initial thought was that some Israeli university should offer to pay for the trip without any strings attached, so Stallman - who writes so extensively on freedom in relation to software - would understand what "freedom" really means.

It wouldn't work. Apparently, Stallman is a complete idiot as far as Israel is concerned.

Part of his website has something called "political notes" where we are treated to such gems as:

Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing for people, but not for goods.
This will help Palestinians who want to leave Gaza for medical treatment; Israel will no longer be able to kill them by blocking their exit.

Does Stallman really believe that Israeli policy is to kill Palestinian Arabs by blocking their ability to leave? In fact, does Stallman believe that Israel has had any say in the border between Gaza and Egypt in recent years?

He repeatedly and approvingly quotes Uri Avnery and MJ Rosenberg, quotes ridiculous news sources saying that Israel shot artillery at the Malaysian "aid" ship without any skepticism, and in short fully believes every anti-Israel statement anyone makes without having the intellectual honesty to check both sides of the story.

These notes mention Israel hundreds of times but as far as I can tell only gives voice to anti-Zionist opinion. I don't see a single mention of the Itamar massacre, while he notes cases of tear gas canisters hitting "peaceful" protesters with slingshots and boulders and Molotov cocktails. No mentions of Qassam rockets this year, but in 2006 he wrote:

Considering that Qassam missiles are almost totally ineffective, Israeli policy resembles that of a grown man who shoots children that try to stab him with crayons.

Brilliant analogy there, Stallman. Why should Israel care about rockets that only occasionally kill people? Just smile and laugh - they are nothing but crayons!

Go speak to the Palestinian Arabs - you deserve each other.

(h/t Silke)

Iranian diplomat accused of spying against Egypt

I edited this from stories in Bikya Masr, Ya Libnan and Al Masry al Youm:

An Iranian diplomat working at the Iran mission in Cairo was detained on Saturday, security sources told Bikya Masr. The diplomat, Qassem Hosseini, was taken in for questioning after a tip-off led investigators to the Iranian diplomat’s villa in Maadi. Early reports said that Hosseini was being held for “passing information” from the mission in Cairo back to his headquarters in Tehran.

Security sources confirmed that Hosseini was arrested and interrogated.

“The state security prosecutor detained and questioned Qassem Hosseini after the Foreign Ministry confirmed he is an Iranian diplomat,” Aly Hassan, a judicial analyst with the justice ministry said.

The Egyptian Supreme State Security Court prosecutor, Taher El Khouli, accused Hosseini of attempting to organize an espionage network in Egypt while working at the Iranian mission in Cairo. The Iranian diplomat is being called an “undercover operative” by the prosecutor, who also said that investigators found spying devices in his home, which are banned in Egypt.

The prosecutor’s office reported that Qassem Hosseini became active in collecting intelligence during the 18-day revolution which ousted Egypt’s president and authoritarian regime from power. The diplomat “took advantage of the security vacuum” surrounding the uprising, El Khouli told reporters. Egyptian investigators followed Hosseini for several weeks and found that he had violated diplomatic procedure and protocols.

Egyptian security officers found documents, a computer and spying devices banned in Egypt at Husseini’s apartment, a security official told the Associated Press news agency on Sunday.

The investigation also revealed that al-Husseini had asked his sources to offer Iranian financial backing to popular Egyptian political organizations and movements in order to strengthen ties with them.

In late April of this year, Kuwait and Bahrain expelled several Iranian diplomats after a court verdict in Kuwait linked Iranian diplomats with a spy ring operating in Kuwait. The diplomats were accused of having direct connections with the espionage network while also reporting back to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

Tweeters and bloggers overwhelmingly pro-Israel after Obama, Bibi speeches

From the Pew Research Center's Journalism.org:

By almost a 3-to-1 margin, bloggers and users of Twitter and Facebook expressed strong support for Israel over the Palestinians in the week following President Obama's May 19 address on the Middle East, according to an analysis of social media conducted by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Many of those expressing support also took President Obama to task for suggesting that peace in the region would best be achieved by creating a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.

Only a small percentage of the conversation was neutral as most users shared strong opinions about the difficult issues involved in the peace process.

In the seven days following Obama's speech, fully 55% of the conversation on blogs on the issue has been in favor of Israel and opposed to a move to the 1967 borders, while 19% has been in favor of the Palestinians and the creation of an independent state. About a quarter, 27%, was neutral.

On Twitter and Facebook, the tone of conversation was similar with 60% pro-Israel compared to 20% pro-Palestinian and 20% neutral.

These are the results of a special edition of the New Media Index from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, utilizing computer technology from Crimson Hexagon. Based on more than 48,000 blog posts and 430,000 posts on Twitter or Facebook, this report goes beyond the normal methodology of PEJ's index of new media to look at the specific themes and tone of the online conversation related to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

The pro-Israeli tone of conversation also stayed relatively constant throughout the week examined. On blogs, the ratio of support for Israel over the Palestinians was virtually the same on May 19, the day of Obama's speech (55% to 19%), as it was on May 25 (54% to 20%).

On Twitter and Facebook, there was a small change over time away from the pro-Israel position, but not enough to see a significant change in the overall makeup of the conversation. On May 19, 62% of the discussion was pro-Israel compared to 20% pro-Palestinian, while a week later the makeup was 54% to 23%.

You're welcome :)

(h/t Zvi)

IAEA notes Iranian nuke weapons program; Saudis to build 16 nuclear reactors

The nuclear arms race in the Middle East is in full swing.

From the NYT last week:

The world’s global nuclear inspection agency, frustrated by Iran’s refusal to answer questions, revealed for the first time on Tuesday that it possesses evidence that Tehran has conducted work on a highly sophisticated nuclear triggering technology that experts said could be used for only one purpose: setting off a nuclear weapon.

The disclosure by the International Atomic Energy Agency was buried inside a nine-page report on the progress of Iran’s nuclear program.

The agency gave some details in Tuesday’s report on work that was apparently done on how to trigger a nuclear device, dating back to late 2003.

“The agency has not described these experiments to this detail before,” said Olli Heinonen, the agency’s former chief inspector.

The disclosure about the atomic trigger centered on a rare material — uranium deuteride, a form of the element made with deuterium, or heavy hydrogen. Nuclear experts say China and Pakistan appear to have used the material as a kind of atomic sparkplug.

The report said it had asked Iran about evidence of “experiments involving the explosive compression of uranium deuteride to produce a short burst of neutrons” — the speeding particles that split atoms in two in a surge of nuclear energy. In a bomb, an initial burst of neutrons is needed to help initiate a rapid chain reaction.

Harold M. Agnew, a former director of the Los Alamos weapons laboratory, said the compression of uranium deuteride suggested work on an atomic trigger.

“I don’t know of any peaceful uses,” he said in an interview.

Tuesday’s report also gave fresh charges on the design of missile warheads. Documentary evidence, it said, suggested that Iran had conducted “studies involving the removal of the conventional high explosive payload from the warhead of the Shahab-3 missile and replace it with a spherical nuclear payload.”

The Shahab-3 is one of Iran’s deadliest weapons, standing 56 feet tall. In parades, Iran has draped them with banners reading, “Wipe Israel off the map.”

Today, Al Arabiya reports that Saudi Arabia si planning to build no less than 16 nuclear reactors by 2030. The estimated cost is $300 billion. The official reason is "energy security" so as not to be dependent on oil...which it controls.

The Saudi move almost certainly reflects the regimes' own nervousness at the potential that Iran will have nuclear weapons.

But the West has sanctions against Iran, so the problem will take care of itself, no doubt.

(The IAEA report also noted that Iran seems to have recovered from Stuxnet.)

(h//t Serious Black)